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A modern,
unique co-working space inside the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College
of Business, RED Labs is a student business accelerator. It’s a space and program
aimed at bringing in real-world mentors to help teams of Bauer students grow
their own cutting-edge tech or medical innovation ideas into real, successful
start-up businesses.

C.T. Bauer
College of Business Professor Hesam Panahi is RED Labs’ founder and faculty
advisor.

“If you’re
looking to things related to tech start-ups, this (RED Labs) is where
everything is happening and you need to get involved,” said Panahi. “We’re very selective of who we get involved,
because we’re looking for the right people who can actually help the students.”

The 820-square-foot
space, located inside Melcher Hall, opened in 2013. It requires participant card access to enter and
features everything from large flat-screen computer monitors and storage
lockers to perks including
unlimited coffee and ramen noodles.

“When people
ask about RED Labs, I usually tell them that it’s a great place for people with
ideas and people with skills to get together and actually build something,”
said Andrew Douglas, RED Labs’ student operations director. “We are able to provide access here to things
like server space, and conference and meeting space. A lot of people come in
with ideas, but they don’t have the skills to make those ideas happen
themselves. I think a lot of what we’re
doing with RED Labs is trying to bring people in from other departments that
might have ideas. If computer science students have an idea, for example, then
we may be able to give them some business knowledge.”

“We’re
really focused on rapid and continuous learning. We want these students to continue working on
these ideas. We want to make sure that they validate these ideas and produce
real businesses,” said Panahi. “These
are people that understand the concept of quickly releasing a product and
quickly getting customer feedback.”

“I’m using
the space as a co-working space. I had a company that actually started out of a
three-day start up,” said Tri Nguyen, a RED Labs participant and
entrepreneurship student. “From there,
it has pivoted several times, and right now we’re a medical innovation
company.”

Nguyen said
RED Labs allows student participants “a safe place to fail early, while you’re
still in college.”

He calls RED
Labs a collaborative place for driven, tech-savvy and creative students.

“It’s the
creative brainstorming from how to get from point ‘a’ to point ‘b,’ seeing how
they think and being able to apply that method to your own idea and business
that really is transformative,” said Nguyen.
“We’re very open about what we did and how we failed so that we can
learn from each other’s mistakes instead of having to make it ourselves.”

“I think RED Labs is worth my time because I’ve gotten to
see what a lot of other people are trying to do. I’ve gotten to see a lot of
different perspectives on tech ideas. It’s very interesting to see how people
approach different problems,” agreed Douglas.